Shift #51 - Laws on Happiness: Legislation in Bhutan
Thursday, July 18, 2024 | 1-2 pm CST/2-3 pm EST (1 hr)
Details
Michelle Hurt, student/intern
Jennifer Gonzalez, practicum supervisor
This is a screenshot of the first slide of the workshop on laws in Bhutan. This was such a surprising and delightful presentation on happiness!
Prior to the workshop, I thought Bhutan was a closed country - that tourists couldn't visit it and that it was super strict with its rules for its citizens. I'm sure that it has its own set of issues like the United States but I'm glad that my preconceptions of Bhutan was changed. Our host was Ugyen Thinley, director of Library Resources and Services at the JSW School of Law in Bhutan. It turns out that it is the only law school in Bhutan and is less than a decade old. JSW stands for Jigme Singye Wangchuck School of Law and it was started by the king's sister - she is the founding president and is a Harvard Law School graduate! The Law School was founded in order to enhance and further strengthen the legal system in the country. Ugyen gave us some neat facts about his country, starting with the fact that many in the West are not aware that Bhutan exists. The national language of the country is Dzongka, it is a landlocked nation between India and China with a population of less than 0.8 million people. Its major religion is Mahayana Buddhism and it is the world's only carbon-negative country! This was super interesting to learn and during the Q&A at the end, I asked about policies regarding this status. Turns out, it is carbon-negative because their constitution mandates that the country's geographical area maintains a minimum of 60% forest and currently, it is at 72% forest. They have an environmental commission to manage environmental projects and ensure compliance, which continues to help them remain carbon-negative - how amazing is that?
We learned about the law school's core values, which include justice, service and wisdom connected to the name of the law school (the name draws inspiration from the 4th king of Bhutan and his selflessness and core qualities). The law school aims to instill these qualities into all of its students. We also learned about the law school's organizational structure, the curriculum and research focus, and also the different programs within the school. What was really interesting, though, is the country's laws on happiness! They have something called the Gross National Happiness and Law. It's not a written law but a code and a goal of the government. The code states that "the purpose of the government is to provide happiness to its people. If we cannot provide happiness, there is no reason for the government to exist." The Constitution of Bhutan, enacted in 2008, made the GNH Index the government's goal. There are four pillars of the GNH Index: 1) sustainable and equitable socioeconomic development, 2) preservation and promotion of culture, 3) conservation of environment, and 4) good governance. There are domains in each pillar. In the first pillar, the three domains are living standards, education and health. In the second pillar, the domains are cultural diversity and resilience, community vitality, time use, and psychological well-being. The third pillar's domain is ecological diversity. The fourth pillar's domain is good governance. The GNH helps promote happiness and to help prevent people from doing bad deeds. The GNH is based on Zhabdrung Rinpochhe, the unifier of Bhutan as a nation-state. Zhabdrung created a set of laws or Kathrim; according to the princess of Bhutan, "it laid the basic organization and ideological principles of law for society" and "is based on the concept of happiness".
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